Creativity
During his 2006 TED Talk Do schools kill creativity?, Ken Robinson states, “I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
As a school, we wholeheartedly believe in the importance of a holistic education. During school tours, I have the opportunity to not only highlight our academic programmes and sporting opportunities, but to also share with prospective families multiple ways in which our students show their creativity during the school day and beyond.
In the article, Why schools are getting education all wrong, Ken Robinson reiterates the importance of moving away from the factory model of education and comments that “All children are born with immense talents … and education must identify and cultivate natural abilities.” I realize that the concept of creativity is open to multiple interpretations (and the examples below* are not intended to be exhaustive). While some may say the activities are not 100% creative since they may be a mandatory component of school and directed/guided by teachers, I would contend that they provide students a framework in which to be imaginative and/or inventive to create something new. Thus, reminding me of Edward De Bono’s quote, “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
In what way is creativity embedded and evident within your school culture? _________________________________________________
* Specific examples whereby creativity is uppermost include:
Music and art classes every week for all students in PreK Age 4 - Grade Five classes culminating in end of semester concerts in our theatre.
For students in PreK Age 4 - Grade Two, this entails singing, dancing, and playing percussion instruments
For students in Grade Three and Four, this entails singing and also playing the recorder
For students in Grade Five, in addition to singing, they showcase their talents across a range of instruments: woodwind (clarinet, flute, saxophone), strings (cello, violin), brass (trombone, trumpet baritone French horn), and percussion).
In Middle School and High School, music, dance, and drama are electives and students have opportunities to perform in our school theatre during a wide range of events such as music performances, dance showcases, school plays, Global Village day, graduation, various assemblies and parent presentations.
In Middle School and High School, art is an elective. Student art ranging from PreK Age 3 - Grade 12 is exhibited around the campus in hallways with a lot of traffic (near the library, near the ES office, near the MS/HS office, near the art room).
Students have the opportunity to audition for drama productions. This school year, we have 101 Dalmations (March 2019) for elementary students and Singin’ in the Rain (November 2018) for middle/high school students. Previous years, we have had Jungle Book, Seussical Kids for elementary and High School Musical, Grease for middle and high school students.
Our library hosts a Makerspace for elementary students during recess and/or before/after school.
High school students during multimedia class making videos to be shared on our website to promote our school generally and during open days.
Middle/High school students can join clubs such as art club, techcorps, and Newspaper
After School Activities including art, creative clay, robotics, engineering with Lego
Our MS/HS band performed in front of 1000+ educators at EARCOS Leadership Conference in KL in 2016.
Students from elementary - high school have had their art exhibited in the local mall highlighting the theme of conservation during Earth Week
PYP Exhbition
MYP Personal Project
IB CAS projects.
IB Extended Essays